Bellini® Strawberry Crape Myrtle

The Bellini Strawberry Crape Myrtle is a compact variety, growing 3 to 4 feet tall and wide. The glossy leaves are deep green and turn orange or yellow in fall. Every stem is topped with a ball of blossoms, ruffled and frilled, that keep coming from mid-summer right into fall. The vibrant strawberry-pink is good enough to eat, and explodes out of your beds with a color-lift you won’t believe. Like a cocktail for your garden, it’s a delicious addition anywhere, including in planter boxes and pots.

• Compact and colorful for beds and planters
• Smothered in rich pink blooms
• Flowers continuously from mid-summer into fall
• Winter-hardy in zone 6
• Clean foliage free of powdery mildew all summer

Full sun is best for the Bellini Strawberry Crape Myrtle, which won’t bloom well in shade. All well-drained soils are suitable, even poor, dry soils and urban gardens. Water new plants regularly, but once established this plant is very drought resistant. Deer don’t bother it, it’s generally pest free, and it doesn’t suffer from diseases like powdery mildew, that disfigure older varieties every summer. Trim in early spring by shortening back the branches, but don’t cut new growth, as this reduces flowering.